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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27459352">Vitrification Order</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunalikespace/pseuds/lunalikespace'>lunalikespace</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Don't Say Goodbye (ChellDOS) [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Portal (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, Old Aperture, heart to heart talks, potato GLaDOS</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:27:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,702</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27459352</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunalikespace/pseuds/lunalikespace</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>GLaDOS and Chell have a heart to heart after hearing some of Cave Johnson's tapes in Old Aperture</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Chell/GLaDOS</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Don't Say Goodbye (ChellDOS) [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1958686</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>87</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Vitrification Order</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>most of the dialogue and setting are taken directly from Portal 2 itself, chapter 7 to be exact, so rights to valve or whatever lmao</p><p>this also serves as a sort of prologue for the rest of my chelldos series, so enjoy</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>GLaDOS watched from her optic as Chell felt the slick propulsion gel under her feet. She gave a final look over her shoulder to check the test chamber over again. GLaDOS already knew she solved it correctly, she knew from the moment they walked in. The only thing left was to stick the landing without falling into the pit of toxic goo. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Fear was only evident on Chell’s face for a moment, before it was replaced with determination. She ran with all her force down the catwalk, the orange gel only increasing her speed. As she passed through her portals, she ran the last bit at an incline before being launched into the air. It wasn’t that GLaDOS didn’t believe in her, but if she were a person, she would've been covering her eyes with her hands. Chell clutched her portal gun</span>
  <span>—and GLaDOS herself—to her chest as she braced for impact with a panel covered in repulsion gel. Her long fall boots made contact and soaked up the kickback before launching her forward yet again. Finally, she landed on solid ground and regained her balance. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She looked relieved, but it pondered on GLaDOS that Chell might've been doubting if she could make that big of a jump. GLaDOS had never been so up close to a test subject before, and now that she was, she was noticing things she never had previously. Like the look of pure fear and panic that flickered across Chell’s face when she ran off the platform. That look didn’t sit right with GLaDOS. She thought about all the times that her test chambers involved something deadly. Did she make Chell worry like that too? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As she stepped into the elevator, a pre-recorded message from Cave Johnson played. The pair listened in silence as he rambled on about dissembling people and then putting them back together. The elevator took them up to another abandoned lobby and Chell portaled around to find a way through the blocked exit. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>GLaDOS continued to rack her brain over who Cave Johnson and his presumably assistant Caroline were. Had she been in her normal body, she would’ve been able to look up their files. But seeing as </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> was impossible at the moment, she would just have to figure it out on her own, which was proving to be more difficult than she expected. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Caroline, caroline, </span>
  <em>
    <span>caroline</span>
  </em>
  <span>, why do I know this woman??? Did I kill her, or—</span>
  <em>
    <span>oh my god.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Look you're… doing a great job. Can you handle things for yourself for a while? I need to think.” GLaDOS said. Chell looked down at her and nodded, sympathetically. GLaDOS felt awful—something she wasn’t used to—that she was just leaving Chell in the dark, but she was on the edge of figuring out who Caroline was, and something within her just </span>
  <em>
    <span>needed</span>
  </em>
  <span> to know. Faded memories that she felt faintly belonged to her flooded her systems and GLaDOS was whisked away in her own thoughts. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Meanwhile, Chell was left to find her way through the abandoned depths of Aperture. After activating all the gels for the next enrichment sphere, she used a runway of propulsion gel to fling herself to the next room. As she walked in, a pre-recorded message by Cave Johnson again played. He spoke about wrapping up human testing and how this new gel he had created was incredibly toxic, and left Chell with the phrase </span>
  <em>
    <span>if life gives you lemons, make lemonade</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As she approached the next room, she covered nearly everything in conversion gel before she flung herself off a ledge and through her portals to land on the exit strip. As she approached the door, the preliminary message began to play over the loudspeakers. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Cave Johnson began, “Alright, I’ve been thinking, when life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” GLaDOS chirped from her potato. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Make life take the lemons back!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Get </span>
  <em>
    <span>mad</span>
  </em>
  <span>!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah!!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t want your damn lemons, what am I supposed to do with these?!” He yelled rhetorically. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, take the lemons!” GLaDOS yelled. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Demand to see life's manager,”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons, do you know who I am? I’m the man who’s gonna burn your house down, with the lemons!” He yelled. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh, I like this guy,” GLaDOS cheered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p><span>“I’m gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that</span> <span>burns your house down!!!” Cave Johnson yelled. </span></p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Burn his house down! Burning people, he says what were all thinking!” GLaDOS said, enthusiastically, earning a look of concern from Chell. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Cave coughed profusely after his fiery speech before continuing, “The point is, if we can store music on a compact disc, why can't we store a man's intelligence and personality on one? So, I have the engineers figuring that out now. Brain mapping, artificial intelligence—we should've been working on it thirty years ago.” He paused, coughing, the illness clearly taking over his body by now, “And I will say this, and I'm gonna say it on tape so everybody hears it a hundred times a day: If I die before you people can pour me into a computer, I want Caroline to run this place. Now she'll argue, she'll say she can't. She's modest like that, but you make her! Hell, put her in my computer, I don't care.” He paused for a moment again, letting his statement hang in the air, “All right, the test's over. You can head on back to your desk.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Both Chell and GLaDOS mulled over what he said for a couple of seconds before everything clicked together. Chell looked down at the potato GLaDOS was stuck in, stabbed onto the end of her portal gun, with her mouth slightly agape in shock. All GLaDOS could mutter was a somber, “Goodbye, sir.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Chell began portaling her way up the broken elevator shaft. She kept glancing down at GLaDOS with an emotion somewhere between shock and sympathy. She wasn't sure exactly how to go about handling the situation, because anything with GLaDOS was very delicate. But, when Chell passed through the door opening into a larger room, she sat down on the ground, set her portal gun down, and pulled GLaDOS off of the end to prop her up.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What is this, break time? We're almost back up there." The AI deadpanned. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Chell normally would've rolled her eyes and ignored her, but she wasn't backing down. What GLaDOS was going through was unimaginable and after everything that had happened, they were partners. Chell had begun to care about her, and she could tell GLaDOS was distraught, even if she wasn't letting it on. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Chell started at the tiny optic on the potato as if to prompt her to say more. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>GLaDOS sighed, "I know you want me to talk about it, but there's nothing more to say." </span>
</p><p> </p><p><span>Chell raised her eyebrow and shot her a look that said</span><em><span> I</span></em> <em><span>don't believe that for a second. </span></em></p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So maybe I’m the crazy man’s assistant, so what?” GLaDOS huffed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Chell motioned something along the lines of </span>
  <em>
    <span>are you okay?</span>
  </em>
  <span> And GlaDOS realized she couldn’t even remember the last time someone had asked her if she was okay; it was probably a lifetime ago. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No…” She began slowly, unsure of herself, “I'm not okay. She—I—didn’t want this. Memories keep coming back to me of being forced into what I am now, and it bothers me. I wasn’t given a choice then and I wasn’t given one by you and that moron either.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her words stung, but Chell knew she was right. And she could ration with GLaDOS’s logic; she would probably be pissed off too if people kept choosing her fate for her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A moment of silence passed between the pair as GLaDOS carefully picked her next words. “I’m here, furious about how people keep making choices without my input, while i’ve been doing the same to you this whole time,” She paused briefly, “I’m sorry, Chell.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Chell’s mouth hung open in shock. Never in a million years would she have guessed she would get a real apology from her, but GLaDOS was surprising her in a multitude of ways. It had been a strange day, to say the least. She smiled, a genuine smile, before picking up GLaDOS to hold her in her hands fondly. GLaDOS was silent for a moment, as if reciprocating her feelings. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Chell took a breath and cleared her throat. “Thank you,” She murmured. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>GLaDOS was floored by her words, but mostly that she spoke at all. She had never heard the woman say a single word to her, despite her file mentioning nothing of being mute or anything of the sort. She had assumed it was a dignity thing, which she could understand. But she was grateful and honored in a sense that Chell accepted her apology with her words. GLaDOS hummed in response and the pair stayed on the floor for a few moments, just enjoying each other's presence, before they felt the entire facility tremble again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <span>I know things look bleak, but that crazy man down there was right. Let's not take these lemons! We are going to march right back upstairs and </span>
  <em>
    <span>make</span>
  </em>
  <span> him put me back in my body! And he'll probably kill us because he's incredibly powerful and I have no plan! Wow, I'm not going to lie to you, the odds are a million to one, and that's with some generous rounding. Still, though, let's get mad! If we're going to explode, let's at least explode with some dignity.” GLaDOS said, giving Chell a pep-talk to the best of her ability. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Chell nodded affirmatively, grinning, before jabbing GLaDOS back onto her portal gun and picking the device up. She looked around the room they were, quickly gaining her surroundings, before she began portaling herself upwards. The pair grew closer and closer to Wheatley with every step and every portal Chell made, and closer to each of their personal freedoms. Neither of them spoke of what would happen to their relationship once GLaDOS was back in power. They simply enjoyed the closeness they were experiencing in the moment, before they reached their impending doom. </span>
</p>
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